Moonlit Song to make 2018 debut in CT allowance

Moonlit Song won the Sylvia Bishop Memorial Stakes. Photo by Coady Photography.

by Frank Vespe

Moonlit Song, Charles Town’s top distaff runner in 2017, is set to make her return to action Wednesday evening in a 4 1/2 furlong, $24,000 allowance test over her home strip.

The Tim Grams trainee is 3-5 on the morning line and will have regular pilot Christian Hiraldo in the irons.

Moonlit Song laid waste to the local distaff contingent in 2017, posting eight victories while earning $234,140. Five of those victories came in stakes company. Her only defeats came in a pair of allowance contests, in which she was second and third, and Laurel Park’s Safely Kept Stakes, in which she finished ninth.

During her 2017 campaign, Moonlit Song won two stakes — the Its Binn Too Long and the Fancy Buckles — at 4 1/2 furlongs. She also won three added-money events at Charles Town’s two-turn, seven furlong distance, capping her season with a 2 1/2 length score in the $125,000 West Virginia Breeders Classics Cavada, the top test for distaff West Virginia-breds.

Moonlit Song, now a four-year-old, is a daughter of top state sire Fiber Sonde. She is out of the Parker’s Storm Cat mare Malibu Kitten. Moonlit Song is a family affair, bred by Grams and his wife Judith and owned by their Grams Racing Stable LLC.

Moonlit Song has had four recorded works in preparation for her 2018 bow. Most recently, she zipped a half-mile in 49 seconds flat at Charles Town March 27. That was the fifth-fastest of 41 works at the distance.

While Moonlit Song figures to be an overwhelming favorite at post time, she’s not the only solid runner in the field. Lies and Scandals (6-1), the John McKee trainee, is an old rival of Moonlit Song, having defeated her in a July allowance and run second to her in both the Its Binn Too Long and Sylvia Bishop Memorial Stakes.

Five-year-old Silent Notion, a Great Notion mare, has been working through her allowance conditions for trainer Ronney Brown. She has won four of 12 starts and is 5-1 on the morning line. And Remy’s Rocket (8-1), another Grams trainee, has finished in the top three in four straight contests.

In the end, though, all eyes figure to be on Moonlit Song. Post time for the race, which will go off as race three, is 7:57 p.m.